I hope you enjoyed my first wine event
I went too while aboard my cruise in Alaska. That tasting had higher
end fine wines. Don't we all wish that we could drink those every
day?! The second one that I tasted was more of your every day
affordable wines, which we all love to look for and enjoy.
This
tasting consisted of 5 wines from Italy, Washington, California and
Chile. You may be familiar with some yourself. This tasting
consisted of:
- 2012 Danzante Pinot Grigio
- 2012 Hogue Riesling
- 2012 Woodbridge Merlot
- 2012 Estancia Pinot Noir
- Errazuriz Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc
Personally what I enjoyed the most,
besides the dessert wine which who wouldn't, was the Danzante Pinot
Grigio. That's not just because I love Italian wines ; ) As you
know by now I'm not overly critical about wines. Every one has
different tastes and I won't tell you what to drink and what not to
drink, but I won't share a wine with you that I don't find enjoyable.
It's all about the journey for the grape and the winemaker and I
appreciate the different characteristics that shine through the
glass.
Danzante Pinot Grigio
This grape was introduced to Italy in
the 1800's. This particular wine comes from the Veneto region
including Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige and the Veneto.
Straw in color, this wine was aromatic on the nose along with
tropical fruit and citrus. It was crisp, refreshing, with some
lemon-lime. On the finish I picked up some apple and pear. It was
lighter in body, but for this time of year I enjoy that. Danzante
has some recipes with pinot grigio on their site to try it with including risotto with truffles, frutti di mare or
lemon and black pepper grilled chicken legs. Yum! Enjoy this wine
young while it's fresh. You can probably find it for about $8-10.
This wine comes out of the Columbia
Valley in Washington state. There is a lot of value coming out of
this state when it comes to wine. At about $10 this is an
affordable, enjoyable wine. Especially for those that don't like the
dry style. Also straw in color with a tinge of yellow, this cool
climate grape had a very aromatic nose of honey, petrol, apricot,
peach and some orange. It had light to medium body with flavors of
ripe fruit combined with some citrus and acidity. Rieslings are
always a nice pairing with chinese food or thai.
I'll start off by saying who doesn't
know Robert Mondavi or whom hasn't tried at least one of his wines,
so this may already be a well known red by many. None the less, it
was on our tasting list so I wanted to share it. It's made of 80%
merlot, 15% petit syrah and 5% syrah. It was aged 20 days in
stainless steel and 10 months in french oak, which was present
through the flavors of vanilla, especially on the finish. The nose
was ripe of plums and berries. Lighter ruby in color it had a medium
body and was drier in style with ripe berries. I would pair this
with a nice Italian dish that includes sauce. You might be able to
scoop this wine up for about $7-8.
Personally if I drink red wines in the
summer I like to keep them on the lighter side and that is usually
something like a pinot noir. This wine is made of 100% pinot noir
from the Central Coast of CA. The color of this pinot was a see
through ruby color and had nice fragrance of vanilla and raspberry on
the nose. There was some spice, vanilla and cherry on the palate.
It's aged 10 months in 25% new french oak and this is where the
vanilla nuances came through. I would pair this with a pork
tenderloin or salmon. I can say for sure there was no shortage of salmon on my vacation! Delicious! You can find this wine for about $15 give or
take.
As they always say, save the best for last and I always eat my meal
so I get dessert! This wine is primarily sauvignon blanc with some
gewurztraminer and viognier from the Casablanca Valley in Chile.
Another place on my travel list! Late harvest is when the grapes
stay longer on the vines to ripen more and become more concentrated.
This dessert wine had a thicker consistency than your typical
sauvignon blanc wine. It spends 11 months in barrel. There is lots
of honey and apricots on both the nose and palate. It's very smooth
and if you have a sweet tooth you must top your meal off with this.
You can probably score this wine for about $18-20.
Lots of deals here to experiment with and for the prices you won't be disappointed. Have a great weekend everyone!
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